Parsec Additive Synthesis - Micro Tutorial Video Lecture | Reason Tutorials: The Ultimate Guide - Video & Sound Editing

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you may have seen we've released a new
rack extension instrument called parsec
today I want to give you a tutorial on
all the cool stuff it can do now I don't
quite have the same technology to do all
the 3d graphics and animation stuff from
my last video but if you bear with me I
think I just might have it covered
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you know on second thought I think I'll
just stick to what I know to understand
the advanced sounds parsec makes we're
actually going to start with reasons
most basic synthesizer the subtracter
you've probably heard this sawtooth
oscillator sound a million times before
but have you ever looked at it to see
what it's really made of to do that
let's open the spectrum EQ and reason to
visualize our sound
you see those peaks in the frequency
spectrum each peak that you see
represents a harmonic frequency present
in the musical pitch you're hearing
these frequencies occur in something
called the overtone series and every
musical instrument follows it in some
way or another the sawtooth oscillator
on a subtractive synthesizer sounds the
way it does because it generates every
frequency in the overtone series whereas
a square wave sounds more Hollow because
it only generates every other frequency
in the overtone series in subtractive
synthesis we sculpt or subtract from
these frequencies to get our final sound
for example if I turn down the low-pass
filter our sound gets more dull sounding
as I filter the higher frequencies out
of the signal if I change the oscillator
type to a sine wave we can see just the
fundamental frequency in the overtone
series this sine wave represents the
building block of additive synthesis in
additive synthesis sine waves called
partials are generated one by one and
added together to make a complex
waveform allow me to demonstrate if I
take our basic sine wave here and add
another sub tractor with its pitch set
to the next frequency in the overtone
series and another subtractors set to
the third pitch and another and another
and another and so on we're starting to
hear and see that classic sawtooth wave
the problem is we've only created the
first 16 frequencies in the overtone
series and it required a bunch of scents
hooked up to multiple mixers and careful
transposing of synth pitches and volume
levels to create the right sound imagine
if we wanted to create 500 partials or a
thousand even obviously doing additive
synthesis by hand isn't very efficient
so instead we have parsec parsec brings
the musicality back in to additive
synthesis now that we understand the
basics of additive synthesis let's take
a look at how parsecs simplifies this
massively complex process into something
we can get our heads around and even get
inspired by I'll create a parsec
instrument and reset it to the
initialized patch parsec has many
sections like sound generators filter
and partial modifiers LFO modulators
envelopes effects and an advanced
modulation bus but its initial setup
doesn't actually use many of these
sections at all in fact the initialized
parsec patch looks something more like
this and it sounds like this
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recognize that it's our old friend the
sawtooth wave instead of swamp Augusta
the thousand knobs to figure out our own
harmonic series parsec sound generators
include predefined clusters of partials
in some useful and musical presets
it's these combinations of frequency
clusters that form the building blocks
of your additive synthesis so the
default generator is the sawtooth
cluster and it looks and sounds very
similar to subtractors sawtooth even
though we know that it's created in
parsec by hundreds of individual sine
waves we can do the usual stuff you'd
expect on a scent like adjust the
pitches octave transpose semitones or
scents and even roll off frequencies by
adjusting the slope and cutoff frequency
of the sound generator zone filter like
this
so far you might be saying why aren't we
just doing this with subtractor the
answer is this that level of control is
pretty much where subtractor ends but
it's where parsec is just beginning
parsec has two sound generators that
look and function the same each sound
generator has two modifiers in it a
modifier is pretty much what its name
suggests it modifies the sound in some
way some modifiers act like analog
filters you're already used to and other
modifiers get freaky on those partial
clusters to do some otherworldly things
each modifier type has two parameters
that can be adjusted by the x and y
knobs let's choose a simple low pass
filter modifier and you'll see familiar
controls on X & Y cutoff frequency and
resonance and if we adjust them the
sound is exactly like you'd imagined but
since additive synthesis deals with
individual frequency partials we can do
much more than this basic subtractive
sculpting let's change the modifier to a
brick wall bandpass filter set the width
on the Y knob to the most narrow value
and sweep the X knob to control the
filter starting frequency you can
actually hear the overtone series
partial by partial as parsecs brick wall
bandpass modifier isolates all but one
partial at a time
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as you can hear though the coolest stuff
is happening when I move the modifier
knob so what would be ideal is if we had
a way to control the modifier knobs
without having to move them by hand well
fortunately we do and it's called the
modulation bus the modulation bus lets
us assign the LFOs the envelopes or even
external sources like CV input to
control many of the knobs on parsecs
front panel let's route LFO 1 to the X
knob of the first modifier of sound
engine a that's really just a long way
of saying the same knob we've just been
tweaking by hand when I hold a note and
turn up the modulation amount those
partials start sweeping automatically
the amount knob in the modulation bus
controls the width of the sweep and the
raid on the LFO controls the speed of
the sweet as with other LFOs you might
be used to on a subtractive Center we
can change the LFO waveform for
different results a random waveform
gives us some kind of sci-fi computer
effect instead of the LFO let's use the
envelope section of the modulation bus
I'll turn the LFO 1 routing off and
instead assign the same modifier knob to
envelope 1 now the knob sweeps based on
the envelopes attack decay sustain and
release settings let's broaden the width
of the sweep to more than just one
harmonic partial using the Y knobs
bandwidth parameter
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and let's adjust our main amp envelope
so that there's no decay maximum sustain
and the longer release time to fill out
this sound I'll turn on sound generator
B set its generator to string move it
down an octave below generator a and
I'll use the parametric EQ modifier to
boost the high mids of it
here's generator B on its own and if I
use the balance knob I can find a nice
blend of both sounds it's a nice moody
sound so let's make it even more Moody
let's crank the stereo spread and turn
on the reverb section
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yeah let's record that there's so much
more we could explore we could look at
each modifier one by one each sound
generator type different combinations of
using the modulation bus or ways to
emulate classic analog sounds and even
acoustic instruments but this is a micro
tutorial after all so let's build out
this idea entirely using presets from
parsecs factory sound Bank let's add
some percussion kick snare bass line
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an arpeggiator
and we'll kick off the sequence with the
sound effect giving us what's known in
modern production as a fall
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now that you understand how parsec works
the presets that come with parsec are a
great way to learn even more just load a
preset and see which generators
modifiers and modulators make it tick
you can also use the presets as a
starting point for your own sounds to
experiment try things additive synthesis
is about creating new sounds for your
music that subtractive synthesis can't
easily pull off at all and parsec takes
all that complexity of partials and
overtone clusters and brings it back to
what really matters in the end getting
inspired
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you